Chapter 39: Rolling with the Punches
Crimson typically needed less sleep than other people, but that was unfortunately not true for wolfkin, so first thing in the morning he was alone in the Den main room.
He hadn’t slept enough by his own standards, but he was so stressed it was hard to fall asleep to begin with. He had someone’s life riding on his shoulders, and his own circumstances weren’t great either. His deadline for Rhea and Lars was five days, but the deadline for the tournament registration was soon enough that to make it in time, he’d have to leave by the end of tomorrow at the latest. He didn’t like his odds, but even if he left after the five day time limit, he’d at least be able to attend it as an audience member.
Not ideal, but his goal was to learn from the other tournament participants, he could just keep an eye on his favorites and ask them to spar at the guild afterwards.
Even with that back up plan in place, Crimson refused to relax. He desperately wanted to attend the tournament in person, it gnawed at him. He would give up on it if he was forced to, but he didn’t want to reach that point.
His current efforts were a result of that concern.
As such, he was trying to figure out how to create an artificial [Mana Pool] within his own body. There were two key points he had to achieve, first: he had to create a permanent structure to contain the mana. Second: because the mana would be consumed over time by the [Void], he’d need a way to replenish it from their original pool. This would likely mean that he’d need to tie it in some way to the [Blessing].
Those connections wouldn’t be fully formed for Rhea until after her birthday, but since her treatment would be easier, he wasn’t that worried. He was currently operating under the thought process that treating one would help the other, but Rhea would be his practice partner since Alois’ treatment would require an additional step.
Crimson already had an idea on how to address the first point, he had some experience in creating a weave of mana that could hold inert spells - like with his personally modified spell: [Healing Orb] - and it gave him ideas on where to start.
That said, the thing that had helped him the most in determining where to start was investigating their physical conditions. Studying how [Void] and [Mana] interacted, and seeing how it suffused the body was awe inspiring. Crimson’s body was structured fundamentally differently, his mana almost completely filled his body…or at least it did before the [Blessing] restricted him to Rank 9 [Mana].
The difference was still stark between them. Rhinese and Verity both had veins to carry the mana through their bodies, and once he’d freed it up to move, it followed those pathways with ease, but Alois completely lacked those veins. Crimson eventually found traces of them, like discovering artifacts of a dead civilization, but it had taken a while. On the other hand, Rhea still had hers, but they were being eaten away at, and likely would disappear at nearly the same time that Alois would die, were they both to go untreated.
It explained the time limit if nothing else, as well as why he was forced to take the [Quest].
He found that it was actually quite easy to make pockets of mana in his own body, and he could even make something that held together even if he wasn’t trying too hard, but the issue was the other part of its behavior: filling it with mana after its creation.
While he didn’t need to be able to remove mana from the artificial [Mana Pool] for this specific case, it would be something he’d need to revisit later.
After three hours of experimentation, just barely before everyone else got up, he managed to create it, but…it was very disappointing in its current state. As he stared at the tiny, minuscule, almost imperceptible amount of mana in the artificial [Mana Pool], his focus was broken by an alert from his [Blessing].
—————
-Quest Created!
-[Quest]: Jeffery, we need more power!
- Requirements:
- Expand the Artificial Mana Pool to hold the equivalent of 100 MP.
- 1/100
-Time Limit: N
-Failure Condition: N
-Reward: [Skill: Mana Puddle]
-
—————
He had created something that was recognized at least, but holding a measly 1 MP would not be enough by a long shot.
He inspected the weave once more, then started to fiddle with it, trying to expand the weave, but it just shattered, and the progress on the [Quest] went from 1 to 0. It only took him a minute to recreate it, but trying to hold more was very difficult. It felt like something just beyond him, so he gave up on that approach. It was deja vu.
About a year ago, back when he’d first started exploring the secret passages of Falst, he’d attempted something too difficult for him: picking a magic lock by grabbing the individual pins and rotating them. He’d failed, and came up with another solution: use a ‘pin cushion’ of [Mana] to grab all the pins at once.
Because of that sensation of deja vu, he felt that there was another solution, another line he could follow. Instead of expanding the size of the current one, he made a second one, and started on working to link them together. It took a bit of time - about 20 minutes - but eventually, he got everything lined up and they combined to form a single point. The [Quest] progress went from 1 to 2.
Emboldened, he made a third point and tried to combine it with the first two. It fought him in a way the first one hadn’t, practically rebelling at the interaction. Clearly, it wouldn’t work, but if it worked for just the two smaller points, it should also work for the two bigger ones. There wasn’t a fundamental difference in the weave or the purpose.
To experiment, he made a fourth little mana point and combined it with the third. His prior experience made combining them an almost instant process. Left with two points of two [Mana] each, he attempted to combine them, and just like the two smaller points, it immediately sucked together. However, this one didn’t hold 4 mana, it held 5.
By this time, everyone else had gotten up. He inadvertently ignored them, so he was surprised to be broken out of his reverie by Rhea smacking him on the head with the handle of a wooden spoon.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
He definitely wasn’t a good houseguest for the meal, his focus was entirely on the fledgling [Mana Puddle] inside him, and trying to expand it. He worked and combined another four small points into a puddle that held 5, then combined the two to get a total of 25. There was definitely some kind of scaling factor for the growth, but it was one that didn’t make sense. 2 and 2 to get 5, then 5 and 5 to get 25? What kind of mathematical function was this?
He didn’t have time to worry about it, but he’d need to come back to it later. He also didn’t have the time he needed to make another 25 MP [Mana Puddle], so unfortunately, it was the furthest he could go for the moment. He’d definitely work on it after Rhea and Alois went to bed though.
Breaking out of his reverie, he dragged Rhea up to the peak once more, this time they brought a bedroll to make things more comfortable.
Inspecting Rhea’s [Mana], he forced his way through the fog of [Void] and reached her [Mana Pool]. While he’d only noted two main points about how he needed to create this artificial [Mana Pool] for Rhea previously, there was a 0th item: he had to make the [Mana Pool] with her [Mana]. His [Mana] and hers were so fundamentally incompatible that the second he stopped controlling it, her body would immediately reject it.
While the [Void] would try to consume her [Mana], it also sought to destroy the [Void], so they would eliminate each other as time passes. Whichever has the higher quantity will win. Alois used a different method to live this long, and Crimson would be using a different solution over sheer quantity for him, but this was the essence of Rhea’s issue: he needed to increase the average amount of mana that persistently remains in her body to counteract the effects of the [Void].
First step of doing that was actually drawing her [Mana] out of its [Mana Pool]. The times he’d done it previously all he’d had to do was tap the [Mana Pool] and it would easily flow out, but there wasn’t resistance for them. For Rhea, he had to drag it, kicking and screaming out of its [Mana Pool]. It fought him like a toddler throwing a fit.
After a bit, he managed to wrestle a bit out, and he tried to guide it into the shape he’d used for his [Mana Puddle], but it kept falling apart. He couldn’t create a dense enough weave to survive the encroachment of the [Void Affinity].
He’d been working on Rhea for an hour at this point, and he realized this method wasn’t going to work, not with his current methods.
He sat back and stared at the sky while trying to think of another option. It was clearly possible to treat both Rhea and Alois - he wouldn’t have been given a [Quest] for it otherwise, but that meant that either his approach was fundamentally flawed, or maybe…
Maybe he wasn’t strong enough.
With a mental flick, he opened his [Blessing] and began to inspect any and every possible road he could see to improve himself.
[Affinity]? No, he was stuck at Rank 9 until the gods figured out how to program the system to deal with Rank 10.
[Skills]? [Sophisticated Mana Influence] and [Sophisticated Mana Sense] were the foundation that allowed him to even begin the process of treating them, but they were currently dead ends. They were still pretty far from being able to progress in any way, so there was nothing useful there.
Other [Quests]? [Mana Puddle] might help him understand more about the problem, but it was a solution that wouldn’t work for Rhea, as proven by his testing. However, there were two others.
[Mana NERD!] would reward him with a [Title], and [Developing Magic] would reward him with the [Skill Magic Adaption].
—————
Mana NERD!
- Requirements:
- Modify 10 Spells
- 1/10
Reward: [Title: Mana Programmer]
Time Limit: N
Failure Condition: N
-Developing Magic
- Requirements:
- Achieve 50 INT
- 50/50
- Achieve 55 WIS
- 55/55
- Modify 5 Spells
- 1/5
- Modify [Healing Orb] to allow it to interact with a [Blessing]
- 0/1
-Reward: [Skill: Magic Adaption]
-Time Limit: N
-Failure Condition: N
—————
While [Magic Adaption] didn’t seem very useful in this case, the final requirement of learning how to interact with a [Blessing] would probably be very useful for treating Alois.
However…[Mana Programmer]…should he gamble on it?
As a quick experiment, he cast the [Gather Water] spell. A sphere of water slowly grew in the air, then began to drip out of the bottom. He continued to inspect the weave for a bit, then made a very simple modification by having form the shape of a flat disk and having the water fall evenly out the bottom, instead of at a single point. A small modification like this, which he would have struggled with just a short while ago, was so easy it didn’t even take him a minute.
The experiment paid off, and both of his [Quests] advanced, going from 1 to 2 modified spells recorded. Crimson had changed [Gather Water] into [Shower].
The bar was a lot lower than he thought, this modification was so easy that he immediately tried to apply it to [Kindle], and have it make a taller fire. He succeeded, but the [Blessing] didn’t count it this time.
Question, what did he learn here? Answer, that his modifications had to fundamentally change the purpose of the spell. [Gather Water] was typically used for drinking water, it was the second most commonly learned spell in the world, but his modifications wouldn’t be convenient for drinking, it would be great for watering some plants or taking a shower. It was distinct, even if the distinction was small, meaning it was worth it to gamble on [Mana Programmer].
His slightly taller fire wasn’t fundamentally different, if he could make it hotter it would probably work, but he didn’t know how to do that yet.
After some quick thinking, Crimson reused the trick he’d created with his modification of [Healing Orb] to capture the flame of [Kindle] in a small sphere, then launched it into the air. He had created a [Flare] spell, and the system counted it.
Crimson continued the process, quickly experimenting with different methods of modification to try and fulfill the requirements. [Orient] became [Track], and instead of pointing north, it would point in the direction of the highest nearby quantity of a specified [Affinity]. [Chill] and [Breeze] were combined to make [Cooling Breeze], [Warm] and [Breeze] became [Warm Breeze].
[Spark] modified to become [Arc].
[Erosion] and [Create Water] became [Mud].
[Erosion] was modified again and became [Stone Cutting].
[Kindle] and [Create Water] became [Steam].
For the last one, Crimson sat down to inspect the points where the [Blessing] connected to his mana pool. It was very fascinating to see the structure it created around his [Mana Pool]. The mana weaves for it were so complex Crimson couldn’t understand what each one did, but all the recent experience he’d gained working with [Mana] now helped him understand the general flow.
Using that understanding, he was able to piece together a spot that he would be able to interact with. Using a metaphor, Crimson was allowed in the lobby, but he didn’t have the security clearance to go any further. He could pass messages through the lobby to the other parts of the building, and messages could be passed back to him, but that was it.
The [Blessing] was extremely intelligent, all Crimson had to do was bring the connections for [Holy Orb] to that ‘lobby’ and it immediately connected.
He stared at it in fascination. Previously, the spell would just continually heal the person it was attached to, even if they had full HP it would continually burn through its supply until it vanished, but this version was just quietly floating next to Crimson, just above and behind his right shoulder, while a beam of golden light entered his back, right over the [Mana Pool].
—————
-[Quest](s) Complete!
-Rewards: [Title: Mana Programmer], [Skill: Magic Adaption]
-Alert: Admin Melia has an offer.
-Quest generated
-[Quest]: Two Become One
-Requirements:
-NA
-Time Limit: N
-Failure Condition: N
-Reward: The [Title: Mana Programmer] and the [Skill: Magic Adaption] are removed from user. [Skill: Magic Programming].
-
—————
There wasn’t any room for hesitation for Crimson, he determined that it was infinitely better to gamble on a [Skill] over a [Title], so he accepted the deal.
—————
-[Quest] Complete!
-Removed: [Title: Mana Programmer]
-Removed: [Skill: Magic Adaption]
-Reward: [Skill: Magic Programming]
—————
Crimson immediately felt a bit woozy, but it quickly cleared with a shake of his head.
He then immediately tried casting a spell, and between a combination of his own experiences, his senses, and [Skill Peak], he understood that he could cast spells the way he always had, or he could cast them using [Magic Programming]. The difference was small, but had a large impact.
[Mana] fundamentally responded to his will, that was how he moved it, and both his method and [Magic Programming] used will as the basis, but where [Magic Programming] differed was in what that will was directed at. Instead of willing each individual strand into the weave, he could now just will it to take the form of a chunk of magic. He couldn’t use it to create an entire spell all at once - yet -, but he could use it to build the spell one chunk at a time.
It was like he’d gone from building sand castles one grain of sand at a time, to using a mold.
The prior amount of effort it would take him to cast one [Magic Light] now allowed him to cast ten.
His [Mana] felt a lot more responsive now, and the effect of even simple flicks of his will felt significantly more impactful. Maybe with this, he’d be able to treat Rhea and Alois.